1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a wheel cover for vehicle wheels.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the automotive field, wheel covers suitable for being mounted on the rims of a vehicle's wheels are known, mainly in order to improve wheel appearance. Two distinct mounting devices are currently known for carrying out such an operation.
A first mounting device has a plurality of central fasteners that extend from inside the wheel cover and lock onto the wheel bolts. Such a mounting device allows mounting of the wheel cover onto the wheel to be simplified and sped up, but does not ensure an effective seal, and, in particular, it has the major drawback of leaving the edge of the wheel cover free such that it can thus move and create a so-called “gaping effect”.
A second mounting device has a plurality of peripheral fasteners that extend from inside the wheel cover and lock onto a portion of the wheel through the use of an elastic locking element or spring. The presence of the spring, whilst allowing high resistance and therefore quite an effective seal above all at the edge of the wheel cover, creates a harmful unbalancing effect due to its eccentricity. In other words, after a wheel has been mounted onto the respective hub during the assembly of an automobile, the balancing of the same wheel is carried out. Then, the wheel cover is mounted to complete the wheel. At this point, however, the wheel is no longer balanced due to the presence of the spring that has a substantial influence upon eccentricity with respect to the same wheel.
Moreover, the weight of the wheel cover is rather high.
From the above, it can thus be seen that particularly important requirements in the application of wheel covers are simplicity of mounting, effectiveness of mounting and limiting weight of the wheel cover.